“Let's bust a move”, the former Beta Band frontman Steve Mason ordered the audience before launching into the dubbed-out rhythms of Lost And Found, one of the highlights of last year’s Boys Outside album.

To the uninitiated it seemed a brave demand. Seeing him centre-stage, unshaven in his baggy coat, checked shirt and scruffy jeans, he looked more cabbie than cult hero responsible for an album full of intensely personal lyrics and enchanting tunes.

Perhaps it’s his blatant refusal to put style over substance – along with personal demons – that means his career has stumbled rather than soared over the past 15 years. Either way, he showed why more people really ought to take notice.

From heavy bass and deep vocals on Am I Just A Man to Stress Position’s almost spoken word verses and lush choruses, he chopped and changed direction easily.

Mason needlessly introduced Yesterday as being under-rehearsed because no one would have noticed as his mantra-like vocals and scything guitars tamed the pummelling bass lines to get everyone’s heads nodding in unison.

As proceedings were wrapped-up by C I AM 15’s relentless beats – recorded in 2005 under the guise of King Biscuit Time – Mason vowed to return with a new album next year.

“I’ll keep rolling with the punches,” he vowed. Let’s hope he does.